Push-button.



F. E. ALTEMUS.

PUSH BUTTON. APPLIOATIOH FILED FEB. 26, 1909.

w/nvmsmf mom rm as? awa- W7 Patented June 6, 1911.

-- theirvrear ends, these contact' strips arese-- yond'v screws 9 .bentinwardly at an an Ie,

To all whom" it may caacem:

PATENT OFFICE.

- ronnnsr E. 'A'LTE Us, or rmnnnnnr nm, PENNSYLVANIA.

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i i Specification of Letters Patent; Patented- June 6, 1911.

r Application filed February 26, 1909. Serial no. 480.144.

Be. it known that I, FORREST E.- ALTEMUS, a citizen of'the United Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, and. State of Pennsylvania, have. invented a new and useful Improvement in Push-Buttons, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, referencebein'g had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

high tension currents in open or closed circuitfwork, andhas for its special object'to able the same to inexpensively.

prevent arcing and consequent burning of the contact points and at the same time enbe constructed cheaply and.

In the drawin s: tudinali section t Fig. 2 1s a similar Figure 1 is a 1611' rough the push buttonj view showing the push sideelevation. Fig. -14', of'FigQQ.

axis a holding sleeve, preferably of brass, .havlng in its rear endanannular internalrecess in which is inserted a cylindrical-shell Z), of fiber or other insulatingmaterial. 0 1s a disk confined between the front end of. the shell I) and the internal shoulder f0rmed= 'bIy'sa1d recess. The rear end ofshell b is cosed bythe head d, also of fiber. .The memberl) is provided, in itscircular wall,; wlth oppositely disposed orifices 6, into which extend they-shaped front ends of, spring contact strips or fingers f. .Near

4 a section on' the line? cured; to shell I). byscrews g which extend,

. tively with through strips f and shell I) and. into head which means also the head (1 is secured in place; The ends of the strips f are,,be-;

wherethey are engaged. by the binding; screws 71,, 4 adapted .tofjconnectthem respecopposite poles. of an. electric; circu t. f Extending into the front end of holding. sleeve av is a button of ifiber, having a re a-rwardly extendingam nular flange forming a recess to receive the front end of a coiled spring k, which surrounds the front end of a .rod or stem Z,

threaded into the head of finger piece or States, residing at loosely within the recess button 5 and extending rearwardly through .the disk 0 beyond the out ends of the con-j tact strips f. The spring I; isconfined between the finger piece z' and the disk c.

Secured to the stem Z, in the rearof disk '0, is a collar m. Loosely sleeved on the stem- Z'jis, a contact carrier n, circular in cross-section, also of fiber. The front part of carrier 11. 1s provided with an external annular recess, 1n wh1ch 1s inserted a beveled annular bridging contact or contact ring 0,

of brass or other conducting material, whose My invention relates to push buttons for{ outer vface slopes inwardly and forwardly. From the outer rear edge of ring 0, the car- .rier n slopes inwardly and rearwardly. The rear end of carrier 11; comprises an annular flange spaced from the stem l.' Threaded on the rear end. of stem Z is a collar ;0 which fits formed by the last-- named flange. The operation of the push-button is as follows: When the finger piece 71 is pressed rearwardly, against the tension of spring/ c,

the collar m pushes rearwardly'the carrier 3 n, the spring contact strips f riding up the rear beveled face of carrier n and being meanwhile pressed outwardly. As-soon as the=contacts f reach and override the ridge at the junction of the oppositely beveled faces of the carrier a, the latter, under the impetus of the spring contacts 7, is quickly pushed "rearwardly along the stem Z.unt1l its movement is arrested by the collar p, as shown in, Fig. 2. During this .movement, and so long as the finger piece is depressed, the two contact strips f are in electrical connection through the conducting ring 0, al-v lowing current to pass from one strip 7 tothe other. When the pressure on the finger piece 2' is released, the spring 70 pushes the same land the stem 1 forwardly. The collar,

p carries forward the carrier 11 until the ridge thereof underrides the contact strips and then the latter, in springinginwardly toward their normal positions, push forwardly the carrier n until its movement is arrested by the engagement of collarm, with ,7.

disk 0. I Y

By the foregoing constructlon, contact is broken very quickly, while the current is opened simultaneously at two widely separated points, thus minimizing arcing and enabling the push-button to be employed high voltage.-.

.. -Having now fully described my invention,

1 05 in connection with currents of comparativelynormally inoperative but adapted in said partial movement of the contact carrier to be rendered operative to move said contact carrier from one collar to the other to complete its movement in either direction.

2. A push button comprising a contact carrier having a face sloping inward toward its end,. spring-operating means adapted to ride along said face, and manually operated means adaptedto move said carrier into position to cause said spring-operating means to ride on to said sloping face, said carrier being movable independently of said manually-operated means to permit the springoperating means to slide along the sloping face of the carrier and thereby complete themovement of the carrier.

3. A push button comprising a contact carrier having a face sloping inward toward its end, spring-operatin means adapted to ride along said face,asecond spring'operating means adapted to move said carrier into position to cause the first spring-operating means to ride onto said sloping face, said carrier being movable independently of the second spring-operating means to permit the first spring-operating means to slide along the sloping face of the carrier and thereby complete the movement of the carrier.

4:. A push button comprising a movable contact carrier, a bridging contact piece carried thereby, said carrier having a beveled face back of said bridging contact, springoperated contacts arranged to engage said bridging contact and adapted, when they ride to the rear of said bridging contact, to ride along said beveled face and propel the carrier forwardly, and manually operated and spring operated means connected with the carrier and adapted to move said bridging contact toward and along said spring operating contacts.

5. A push button comprising a movable contact carrier, spring operating contacts, a bridging contact earned by the carrier, and spring-operated means connected with, and having a limited movement relatively to, the carrier and adapted to operate the carrier to move it substantially into position to cause the eonnection between the bridging contact and'the spring operating contacts to be broken, said carrier having an inwardly sloping wall behind said bridging contact adapted to be engaged by "saidspring-operating contacts, whereby ,the: movement of the carrier is completed.

6. A push button comprising a contact carrier having faces sloping inwardly in opposite directions, a contact on the forward sloping face, springoperating contacts adapted to ride along said faces, and manually operated means adapted when operated to move said carrier into position to cause said spring-operating contacts to override.

the high point of the carrier onto the sloping contact face, said carrier being movable independently of said manually operated means to permit the spring-operating contacts to slide along thesloping contact face of the carrier and thereby move the latter.

7. A push button comprising a contact carrier having faces sloping inwardly in opposite directions, a contact on the forward sloping face, springoperating contacts adapted'to ride along said faces, andspringoperating means adapted to move said carrier into position to cause said spring-operating contacts to override the high point of the carrier beyond the sloping contact face,

said spring-operating means to permit the spring operating contacts to ride along the rear sloping face of the carrier and thereby move the latter.

8. A push button comprising a contact carrier having an inwardly and forwardly sloping contact face, spring-operating con-.

tacts adapted to ride along said sloping contact face, means connected with said carrier adapted when operated to move said carrier rearwardly into position to cause said spring-operating contacts to ride onto said sloping contact face, said carrier being movable independently of said operating means to permit the springoperated contacts, under their own impulse, to slide along the sloping face of the carrier and thereby complete and accelerate its rearward movement.

9. .A push button comprising a contact carrier having an inwardly and rearwardly sloping face, a contact on said? carrier in front of said sloping face, spring-operating contacts pressing against said carrier and adapted to ride along said sloping face and said contact, means connected with said carrier adapted when operated to move said carrier forwardly into position to cause said spring-operating contacts to ride onto said sloping face, said carrier being movable independently of said operating means to permit the spring-operated contacts, under their own impulse, to slide along the sloping face of the carrier and thereby complete and accelerate its forward movement.

10. A push button comprising a contact carrier having faces sloping in opposite disaid carrier being movable independently of x carrier having faces sloping inwardly in i tlon.

rections, spring-operating contacts adapted, by engaging said sloping faces, to move said carrier in opposite directions, a bridging contact carried by the carrier and adapted, by said engagement of the spring-operating contacts therewith, to electrically connect the same, a device connected with, and having a limited movement relatively to, the carrier and adapted to be operated to move the carrier into position to be actuated by said-spring-operating contacts in one direction,-and a spring connected with and actuating said device in the other direction and thereby adapted to move the carrier into position to be actuated by said spring contacts in the other direction. I

11. A push button comprising a contact opposite directions, a contact on the forward sloping face, a rod on which said carrier is sleeved, collars on "said rod between which the carrier is movable, spring contact fingers engaging op osite sides of the carrier and along which t e sloping faces of the carrier are relatively movable, a finger piece on said rod by means of which the same is pushed in one direction and a spring tending to push said rod in the opposite direc 12. A push button comprising a holder, a shell having orifices, 'a disk. within the holder whose edgeis confined between the holder and shell, a rod extending longitudinallythrough said disk and within the holder and shell, a finger piece on the rod and movable along the holder, a spring confined between the disk and finger piece,

a contact carrier on the rod, said contact carrier having adjacent beveled faces sloping inwardly in opposite directions, one of said beveled faces being formed of conducting material, collars on said rod between which the carrier is movable, and spring contact fingers secured to the shell and extending through the orifices therein and along which the beveled faces of the carrier are relatively movable. v

v 18. A push button comprising a shell having opposing orifices, a head inserted in the rear thereof, spring contact fingers attached to said shell and head and extending along "the outside of the shell and projecting turnthe rod after it is moved in one direction by said finger piece.

14. A push button comprising a shell having opposing orifices, a head inserted in the rear thereof, spring contact fingers attached to said shell and'head and extending along the outside of the shell and projecting through said orifices, a contact carrier within the shell, having faces, sloping inwardly in opposite directions, adapted to slide along said fingers, one of said beveled faces being formed of conducting material, a rod on which said carrier is sleeved, collars on the rod between which said carrier is movable, a holder for the shell, a disk at the end .of the shell confined at its edge between the shell and holder, a finger piece secured to the rod and movable along the holder,

anda spring confined between the disk and finger piece.

In testimony of which invention, I have hereunto set my hand, at Philadelphia, on this 19th day of February, 1909.

FORREST "FL. ALTEMUS.

. Witnesses: v

' M. M. HAMILTON, E. E. WALL. 

